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Observations relevant to superego phenomena can be made in relation to:
1Longitudinal studies of personality development. Studies of this sort are being conducted at several centers throughout the country. We are still in the earlier phases of this research.
2The pathologic distortions of the superego demonstrated in the various emotional disturbances. This is historically the oldest research tool afforded to psychoanalysis and is certainly not yet exhausted.
3Changes in the superego during the course of therapy. Included here are reconstruction of the developmental phases and observation of the effect of the transference-countertransference interactions on the superego within the context of the total personality.
This paper will primarily relate to the second and third areas of study of the superego as they are revealed during the course of therapy. The clinical data are drawn from both my private analytic practice and particularly from the research unit in juvenile delinquency and to some extent the research on childhood schizophrenia at the Judge Baker Guidance Center.
Our theoretical framework is based on the concepts evolved by Freud (5) who discussed the definitive development of the superego as a separate and special functional system occurring with the resolution of the oedipal conflict. He stated that developmentally the child passes through the oral and anal stages to enter the phallic-urethral stage of development with its attendant castration anxiety. It is castration anxiety which expresses the ego's organization of the instincts at the more specific genital level, in contrast